Stephen Curry vs. Jerry WestA year or two ago if asked to come up with a past-era analogy for Curry, I'd have said "a slightly smaller, [much] less defensively capable Jerry West". **I feel I'll need to qualify that "slightly smaller" statement, given bbref lists Curry as 6'3" and West as 6'2".
First off, I simply cannot believe the 6'2" listing for West, at least not by modern standards, and I'll provide the following photographic evidence:
We can add this to the mounting pile of photographic evidence that they most certainly do list player heights differently today than they did back then.
If Kobe is listed as 6'6" and Wade at 6'4", the consensus I get from those photos is that West would probably be listed at 6'4" today. He also had those sort of peculiar high-set shoulders and fairly long arms.....I think he's perhaps
effectively closer to 6'5".
Anyway, back to why I thought West made a somewhat appropriate comp for Curry:
They're both scoring PG's who were fantastic outside shooters, and lived a lot from the outside; and they both had the lightning fast release. In fact, before Stephen Curry came along, if I were asked who had the quickest release in NBA history, I would have said West (Curry might actually edge him out by a few nanoseconds). Prior to Steph, the only other guy who seemed close to West in this regard was Dell Curry (Steph's pops.....no coincidence here, I'm sure).
After this '15 season, the defensive gap doesn't seem quite a large. I mean, it's still substantial, but as others have argued and provided evidence for (was my impression from eye-test this past season, too): Steph was better defensively in '15 than ever before in his career.
Have been watching some more tape of West recently, though, with special focus on how he plays defense; and I must admit he appears to be the real deal defensively. Extraordinary timing and anticipation, amazingly quick hands......tbh, I'm not sure I've ever seen his equal in these regards. I don't see him gambling himself out of position too often to come up with those steals, as they're more often than not ON-ball picks (which has less likelihood to leave you out of the play defensively). He was great at harrying entry passes, long and quick enough to come up with blocks, contested outside shots super-well, etc.
So yeah, I still think the defensive gap is substantial (just not quite as big as it was prior to '15).
btw, nice summary (granted it's highlights, but it gives a good indication of what West was about and what he was capable of; goes in stages: first his jump-shooting, then his slashing/finishing, then his defense, then his play-making). Worth a watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEzwR1a8KuA[/youtube]
Offensively, though, I think Curry has surpassed West, and perhaps by a decent margin. I still think West has the greater capacity to bury opponents from the mid-range (would just LOVE to have shooting data for that era, because West must have been remarkable), especially given his apparent greater ability to hit the contested pull-up from 14-20 ft; and I think he's as good a finisher near the rim as Curry (kinda like Barkley, I notice a tendency to keep two hands on the ball even on lay-ups until just before he's going to release it....I think it helps with absorbing minor contact and still finishing), and he's BETTER at drawing fouls (though Curry's the better FT-shooter). And no doubt West would benefit from a 3pt line.
But Curry's outside shooting is legitimately GOAT-level, especially considering his ability to shoot that well contested and off the dribble. I mean 44.3% from trey while taking >12 3PA/100 possessions is already remarkable (previously unheard of, actually); to then consider that only 7 of 12 of them were assisted (so 5 of 12 are off the dribble or otherwise in isolation).......ridiculous.
"Only" 23.8 ppg belies what was one of the all-time great scoring seasons, imo (especially in light of my prior discussions with The-Power, regarding Curry's ability to "carry on as usual" even if shouldering larger minutes).
And while West was a pretty good play-maker, I simply believe Curry to be a little better.
And actually, when you adjust for pace and minutes and such, it seems West actually doesn't have any significant advantage as a rebounder.
Anyway, after much rumination, West is rising on my peaks barometer, but I ultimately think Curry a bit superior based on the better offense (PG, after all). And because all the eye-test, lack of major weaknesses, season narrative, and elite box/advanced metrics all coincide with elite impact indicators, too.....I'm going to give Curry the edge over the other guys I was considering for my third ballot.
"The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it." -Edward Rutherfurd
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
